City Has New Country Twang

A cowboy-hat-wearing dancing doll with a peanut in its mouth is among the details to be seen at Skinny Dennis in Williamsburg.
Natalie Keyssar for The Wall Street Journal

By

Josh Dawsey

March 25, 2013 9:25 p.m. ET

Country singer Jason Aldean needed only seven minutes to sell out almost 20,000 seats for his debut at Madison Square Garden earlier this month.

So when he took the stage, he gave a nod to the local fans who poured into the venue to hear odes about a large green tractor, "flyover states" far from Manhattan and shenanigans on desolate dirt roads.

"Apparently there's a misconception in Nashville there's not a lot of country music fans in New York City," he told a roaring crowd. "I'm going to go back and let them know that's bulls—."

Maybe there was once reason to doubt country's widespread allure in New York, a city Hank Williams Jr. once sang was "about the same" as hell. But country has never been more popular or mainstream in New York, say longtime venue promoters and country aficionados.

For the first time since 1996, New York has a country music radio station—NASH 94.7 FM—which launched in January and has already counted almost 1 million listeners a week, according to ratings agency Arbitron. NASH has staged several high-profile concerts in the city, and mash notes on the station's FacebookFB-1.26% are lengthy and effusive.

"We have twice as many listeners as we thought we'd have by now," said Lew Dickey, chief executive officer of radio broadcasting company Cumulus Media.CMLS9.27% "There was a tremendous unserved demand for a country radio station here."

Just eight years ago, the Country Music Association raised eyebrows when it held its annual awards show in the city. Now, honky-tonks can be spotted in unlikely parts of New York, like a booming venue in Williamsburg called Skinny Dennis that opened last month.

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At Brother Jimmy's, a popular Southern barbecue chain, never have more customers asked to hear country tunes, said owner Josh Lebowitz. "There was, fairly recently, a tipping point for country," he said. "I've owned the restaurants for 13 years, and there was once little to no country in the city."

The Country Music Hall of Fame held its annual concert in Times Square this year and sold tables at $10,000 each.

Bob Shea, executive vice president for bookings at Madison Square Garden, says he's actively looking for more country stars to fill the venue. When Eric Clapton plays at the Garden next month, three of his guests will be country stars Brad Paisley, Keith Urban and Vince Gill.

Mr. Shea said the new radio station will be important to spreading the word about shows, just as the venue does with other genres on stations that already had a presence here.

"We look forward to country growing more with a station back in New York," Mr. Shea said. "I think country music is as popular as it's ever been here."

The growth is part of a broader national trend, fueled by big name stars like Taylor Swift and popular television shows like "Nashville." And ratings agency Arbitron says country listeners are at an all-time high across the nation, with more than 1,800 country stations. The format ranks No. 1 in total ratings in every demographic but teenagers and those over 55—and country has even taken off abroad.

Still, it may seem difficult to imagine the genre completely dominating the market in a city where Southerners and country lovers are far outnumbered. Formats like adult contemporary and Spanish remain far more popular, with lite-music station WLTW, the city's top station, attracting about 4.7 million listeners per week in February, according to Arbitron.

"To come out of a gate like that in your first month really speaks volumes about the demand," said Arbitron spokeswoman Kim Myers. "But WLTW has been the No. 1-ranked station as long as I can remember."

There are also unlikely country fans, which give Mr. Dickey hope for continued growth. Zephaniah O'Hara, a 30-year old DJ who dubs himself Rex Stetson, wears a ruffled cowboy shirt as he spins country records at Skinny Dennis, where photos of Willie Nelson grace the walls. The venue opened last month after owner Sal Fristensky said he saw the genre booming. On several recent evenings, the bar was nearly packed.

"I used to like that psychedelic music," he said.

At Joe's Pub on the Lower East Side, the Country Music Association has staged a songwriters series for nine years. It once attracted an underground of country loyalists, and tickets were easy to score. Now, the venue stages a special online sale, which it does for only a handful of concerts each year, and watches every ticket sell within an hour.

At a recent show, guests were plotting whether they'd be able to return in May. "It wasn't that way five years ago," said partner Kevin Abbott. "They would maybe sell out, but it would take a while."

Last week, a crew of dapper finance types sat in the front row, clamoring for star Craig Morgan to play the song "Redneck Yacht Club." He finally relented, drawing wild cheers from the room as he crooned "side by side, there's five houseboat front porches, astro turf, lawn chairs and tiki torches, regular Joes, rockin' the boat that's us."

"We've been to every single one of these for nine years, and they used to be halfway sold out," said George Fecanin, 50. "Now it's hard to even get in the door."

As he stood outside the show, he chatted with longtime friend Sue Levey. Ms. Levey, a 58-year-old Midtown convention planner, dubs herself the "queen of the Jewish country fan club." She's dragged friends to country shows for years but now has a loyal coterie each time.

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